Fed’s fractured vote signals trouble ahead for future rate cuts

Jerome Powell pushed through a rate cut Wednesday over the broadest reservations of his nearly eight-year tenure, and in doing so, implicitly delivered a pointed message to President Trump and his own successor:

- Nick Timiraos

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Cutting rates is harder than it looks.

The decision drew three dissents—two from officials who opposed any cut and one from a Trump ally who wanted a larger reduction.

The formal vote understated the resistance. Four other officials registered a quieter objection in the Fed’s quarterly projections: They wrote down a higher interest rate for 2025 than the one the committee approved—a signal they wouldn’t have cut. Together with the dissenters, that is roughly a third of the policymakers who attend Fed meetings.